Mike Joy (born November 25, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois) is a TV sports announcer, who currently serves as the lap-by-lap voice of FOX Sports' NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage. His color analysts are Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds. Joy is also Speed Channel's expert analyst for their coverage of collector car auctions, and vintage auto racing events.
Joy attended the University of Hartford and Emerson College and began his public address work at Riverside Park Speedway in Massachusetts in 1970. He added Thompson Speedway in 1972 and in 1975 began working at Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut, joining Jack Arute, Jr., the son of the track owner, establishing the track as a hotbed for announcers. He worked for Motor Racing Network for 15 years and was the lead broadcaster for the first ESPN live NASCAR broadcast in Rockingham, North Carolina, and later became a pit reporter for CBS' coverage of the Daytona 500 in 1984, working with Ken Squier and Ned Jarrett.
Joy also worked the first five years of The Nashville Network's NASCAR coverage as lap-by-lap for all three national series and other regional series.
In 1994, Joy was named as chief announcer of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network broadcast of the Brickyard 400. He would hold the position through 1999.
In 1997, CBS made Joy the lap-by-lap announcer with Ken Squier moving to studio host, where the pair worked until the end of 2000. He joined FOX for three years of Formula 1 coverage in 1998 with Derek Bell, and moved full-time to FOX with NASCAR starting the 2001 season.
Joy's CBS career also included Formula 1, CART, covering the Winter Olympics and NCAA championship events in soccer, swimming and diving, track and field, and wrestling.
An avid SCCA amateur race driver, he has won events at Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, Pocono and New Hampshire, and raced professionally in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1993. He has tested in NASCAR stock cars and race trucks, and raced vintage TransAm cars and sports cars.
He previously had developed special events advertising for a Detroit auto manufacturer, managed and promoted a major auto racing facility, Lime Rock Park, and served four elected terms to the Windsor, Connecticut town council.
Joy was one of the first announcers to embrace the Internet. In 1997, he encouraged Usenet and Jayski readers to e-mail TV coverage suggestions that he could present in a CBS seminar. A member of many Usenet newsgroups, he reads them for preparation for broadcasts.
Joy resides in Mooresville, North Carolina with his wife Gaye and their two children, Scott and Katie. He retains his New England roots as an equity partner with John Holland in New England Racing Fuel, Inc., the Sunoco Race Fuels distributor in the region.
Joyisms[]
- "Now it's time for "Let's you see what you've got" time--referring to the end of a race.
- "The yellow line is your best friend"--referring to the yellow line on the bottom of the race track at Daytona and Talladega.
- "A melee ensues"--referring to "The Big One" a wreck at Daytona or Talladega.
- "The front cars are the fast cars and they are in clean air and behind them the furious"
- "If that wall has one more coat of paint on it, he hits it."
- "Money lap next"--the white flag
- "The throne of the king"--referring to Richard Petty's Pontiac(now Dodge).
- "(Driver) has made no friends making his way to the front"
- "What will they do?"--Mike wondering whether the drivers will pit or stay out.
- "It's right about that time"--end of a race.
- "The eye of the storm..."---Mike when describing a pack of cars racing fiercely and closely together...though the eye of the storm in reality is the calmest part of a hurricane.